Prophetic movements operate on an unworldly calculus detached from political reality

Evidence

That such a “prophet” (we are not sure the term is one he used about himself; it is more probable that it was applied to him by the investigators) should have emerged in the first half of the sixteenth century in the narrow Castilian environment of Ar´evalo is difficult to believe, for one must ask what message could be preached with any success at such a time and in such a place. It may help to set this phenomenon in perspective if we recall that elsewhere in the world, and in equally unpromising environments, prophets and preachers have led their religious communities into hopeless conflict with their rulers with as little hope of success (as this world might understand that word). The essential factor to bear in mind is that a totally unworldly calculus, not a worldly one, applies in such cases, especially once a dominant and charismatic preacher himself becomes convinced that the secular powers here below are about to be replaced by some supernal order. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 555

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Weberian charisma and to the logic of millenarian movements in The New Jim Crow-ish systems of total domination, and to the messianic logic in political studies of religious movements. — connects to: Revolutionary faith can be incompatible with clear awareness of reality — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 196